There are a number of fishermen who still find the handling of fish bait, especially live bait, with the bare fingers unpleasant. Particularly, with some types of bait such as leeches, handling of the bait can result in minor injury and discomfort to the fingers. Women and some small children especially find the handling of bait sufficiently undesirable to discourage them from enjoying the sport of fishing. Because most bait is usually difficult to handle and is slippery, there is always the danger of running a fishhook through a finger when attempting to thread the bait on the fishhook.
There are also some fishermen who believe that when bait is handled with the bare hands that the bait will pick up a scent from the fingers which fish can detect. This is especially true if the fingers are contaminated with gasoline, oil, insect repellants, etc. Therefore, handling of bait with the bare fingers is undesirable since it may deter fish from taking the bait.
There have been a number of bait holders designed in an attempt to minimize manual handling of the bait. However, some of these do not allow the bait to be picked up and adequately held without damage to the bait. Other such holders are such that they almost completely enclose the bait, thereby preventing the bait from being threaded onto the fishhook. It is, therefore, the object of the invention to provide a simple, inexpensive fish bait holder which will allow fish bait to be picked up, gently but firmly held, and to be held properly for threading on a fishhook.